On The Heels of A Successful Protest Action ,Govt/ASUU Blind Pride Game Might Still Linger On

 In the past three(3) months I've been waking up everyday wondering if the Kogi State Government(and everyone attached to it) are just been intentionally stubborn and stone headed or they are naturally dimwitted,and right in the midst of my lonely wonders came this report from the    Daily Trust ; on the heels of the protest on thursday morning Special Adviser to the governor on Media and
Strategy, Mallam Abdulkarim Abdulmalik told reporters this :

"The ASUU grouse was premised on falsehood. They were owed five months arrears, four months has been cleared which represents 80 percent of the obligation owe to them. Only 40 percent of the bailout was released to government so where did they (ASUU) expect the government to go and take the balance from?

 "Primary school teachers are there, secondary school teachers are there. They have not gotten as much as ASUU has gotten. Therefore, the students' action is ill motivated because the students should rather be fighting their lecturers for refusing to return to classes afer collecting four months salary arrears. Between ASUU and the government."

Now,am not quite sure if he understands the essence of that protest action. We simply don't care about what's up with the bail out fund,or how many teachers have been paid in the state. We have made it known that we are downright tired of staying athome for months when we are supposed to be in school learning. We don't care about what's going on in the state,we just don't care,just like ASUU don't care about what's going on in the state,we too don't care, afterall the education is not free,we paid fees to acquire it . These ASUU members are the same set of people who weren't paid salaries for "5 whole months" and left to live on little to nothing as they do their jobs and teach students,for five months. Now they're demanding their pay and its not proper,really,how logical is that. Call them selfish,self-centered and self- absorbed,but their irghts remain their rights.  And now we've suffered for all that for 3 months.

He furthered his comment by adding this :

"The truth of the matter is that there are unseen hands behind this unrest and government is appealing to these students to remain rational. However, government will not joke with the interest of the students and members of the public because the government feels the pinch of the difficulty the parents of the students are going through"

Unseen hands....really...no comments


Just some minutes ago, in a terse reaction on social media, the acting chairman of ASUU, Dr. Daniel Aina had this to say :

“the reverberation of concocted trajectories and tantrums at our persons belong to the dustbin. We speak to issues and love the people. Truth is like a cork- always afloat. To keep it submerged, energy MUST be expended. No matter for how long, when the expenditure of energy ceases, it will come afloat. Play your record to the world. ASUU KSU did not say it signed any MoU with government.

“The govt team felt embarrassed by the action of the students. According to them, the students insisted on seeing ASUU and government talking, school to reopen on Monday and government to pay outstanding salaries owed.

“To the first count we said we are always available for dialogue. There is no time we have refused invitation.

“To the second we told them we aren’t the school management. The onus of reopening the University lies on the management.

“To the third, we told them that if the outstanding salaries are paid, within two days we would reinstate our services.

“They started politicking – we will pay one month within ten days and pay the rest later. We said they should pay one immediately and let us sign an MoU for the outstanding. They then revealed to us that the ten days cannot be guaranteed and that they cannot sign an MoU with us. We informed the government team that they have summoned us because of the problem they are facing.

“We volunteered to help out to pacify the students. The summary of our speech to the students was that they have made an historical mark, which should suffice for govt to take a cue and do the needful but that nothing substantial have come out. We tried to attribute it to the absence of his Excellency, so they should be patient. ASUU KSU is currently on no pay no work action. Let the government do the needful and we’ll resume work. FALSIFICATION AND PROPAGANDA WILL NOT WORK!!”.

Well,from where I stand it looks likely that this pride/ego game by the Kogi State Government and ASUU may linger on a bit longer,even after the commendable heroics shown by NANS,NAKOSS,KSU SUG and every KSU students that took part in the protest action on Thursday, except off course their are strategies put in place to further make our voices heard,which the SUG PRO indicated on his facebook timeline 16 hours ago ;

"Yesterday message was so strong, history made and glory to the students. We gave no audience to any government representatives that came, all we needed is for Bello and ASUU chairman to reopen Kogi State University with immediate effect; though ASUU chairman came and addressed us after his meeting with the government representatives. ASUU chairman statement is on record and we holding them responsible to the chairman's statement. He said that the government has asserted to their MOU and that his Excellency is not in the state to sign. However he pleaded with us to give them ten days from now to hold a congress. Students are advised to stay in their various houses as the students union government is high in spirit, hence we not waiting for any ten days but we giving ASUU from today to monday to put their houses together and should in case nothing is done at the end of Monday we shall strategize and take a more dreaded step on Wednesday 20th July 2016."